Futuristic plug-and-play ALPOD home can pop up anywhere in the world

The mobile home of the future has popped up in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Park. Created as a solution to the city’s skyrocketing real estate prices, the high-tech pod house, named the ALPOD, promises city dwellers greater freedom in where and how they want to live. The team behind the prefab and portable ALPOD includes Hong Kong visionaries from AluHouse, James Law Cybertecture, and ARUP.

Constructed from aluminum, the ALPOD is sturdy yet lightweight enough to be moved from one place to another. Eric Kwong, Managing Director of AluHouse, says aluminum has the added benefit of being recyclable, easily adaptable to different climates and environments, insulating against heat, and resistant to corrosion and fire. The aluminum shell is expected to have over 50 years of sound structural durability.

Each pod house offers 43 square meters (480 square feet) of floor space lined with wood laminate and arranged in a column-less open-plan layout with a pre-installed bathroom, kitchen, living room, and dining area that doubles as the bedroom. Natural light floods the space through skylights and full-height glazed sliding doors, while built-in LEDs illuminate the structure at night.

The pod home can be stacked together to create a modular skyscraper. The ALPOD is currently on view at the 2015 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism \ Architecture and follows the theme “VISIONS 2050 – Lifestyle and the City” from December 11, 2015 to February 28, 2016.